Energy

Elon Musk ramps hiring effort for Tesla’s Gigafactory battery factory

Operations are ramping up at Tesla Gigafactory 1, with CEO Elon Musk inviting interested individuals to apply for a job at the massive battery plant in Sparks, Nevada. Considering the timing of Musk’s most recent announcement, it seems like the California-based firm is gearing up for a massive increase in activity as the Model 3 approaches its target production numbers.

The invitation to join the Gigafactory team was posted on Twitter and included a touch of Musk’s trademark wit and spontaneity.

“Come work at the biggest & most advanced factory on Earth! Located by a river near the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains with wild horses roaming free.”

A link to the careers page on Tesla’s site reveals that the company is looking for various technicians, material handlers, engineers, managers, production associates, and many more. Overall, the available job postings for the Gigafactory invoke an air of expansion, as Tesla continues to ramp up battery production of its latest and possibly most disruptive car to date — the Model 3.

Tesla’s $5 billion factory is arguably the heart that gives life to the company’s vision for a sustainable future, producing batteries and energy products such as the Powerwall and commercial Powerpack battery storage system. Gigafactory 1 is also the facility where Model 3’s battery and powertrain are being manufactured.

RELATED: Tesla’s Gigafactory continues to reshape Reno: Transforming education, housing and the small business sector

During Tesla’s Q3 2017 earnings call, Musk directly addressed the Gigafactory’s workers and the lack of manpower for the Model 3 line. According to Musk, Tesla ended up pulling the third shift of workers from the Model S and Model X line in order to help out the Model 3 labor pool, since the company was running out of manpower for the mass market electric sedan.

“We also just needed much people on (the) Model 3 line. So we thought we will take the third shift from Model S and the X, and apply it to Model 3. Because really, running out of the labor pool, honestly. It’s like we’re sucking the labor pool dry both in Gigafactory and in Fremont. It’s just so many people that can make it to the Gigafactory.”

The increase in activity at Tesla’s battery plant has recently been touted as being the root cause for an ‘extreme’ global shortage of cylindrical batteries, as demand for battery powered products, even beyond electric vehicles, continue to soar.

“It is impossible to purchase cylindrical batteries within Japan and we were even notified by Panasonic that they are not going to sell cylindrical batteries anymore.” said a representative for a Japanese battery distributor,. “It has come to a point where we cannot even purchase products from Samsung and LG and even products from Samsung and LG that were produced in China.”

In addition to increasing efforts to ramp its workforce at its Nevada-based battery factory, Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, N.Y., a factory dedicated to producing solar cells for the company’s line of solar panels and Solar Roof product, has headed early efforts to bring nearly 3,000 jobs to the Buffalo area, as the company aims for volume production of solar products in 2019.

Elon Musk ramps hiring effort for Tesla’s Gigafactory battery factory
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